Unforeseen dangers
by Starryknight09
Summary: Sequel to Navigating uncharted waters. As Peter recovers from his capture by Ross, a photo of him with Tony and the Avengers leaks and is splashed all across the media. No one can figure out who he is, but the public's interest has been ignited. While Tony worries about Peter's identity being exposed, Peter isn't as concerned. Besides, what's the worst that could happen anyway?
1. Chapter 1

"_Let him go Ross." Tony ordered. _

_He held his arm out, repulsor charged and aimed at the man in front of him, but he didn't fire. He couldn't be sure he wouldn't hit Peter. Ross had his kid in a chokehold and he was using him as a human shield, cowering behind him with a gun held to his head._

"_I don't think I will." Ross said with a sneer, tightening his hold._

_Peter's face was starting to turn red, but he still struggled weakly, trying to pry Ross's arm away from his neck. But he couldn't get away. For Peter not to be able to free himself, Ross must've done something to block his strength or he was more hurt than Tony realized._

_Peter's terror filled eyes stared at Tony, silently pleading to be saved._

"_You should've listened to me Stark." Ross grit out. "Now it's too late."_

_Ross readjusted the gun so it was flush against Peter's temple._

"_No!" Tony screamed. But it was too late._

_Ross pulled the trigger._

Tony awoke with a scream dying on his lips. He jerked upward, instantly recognizing the interior of his bedroom. A dream. It'd only been a dream. It hadn't happened. Peter was safe. Safe and asleep in his bed across the hall.

Tony took a few deliberate breaths to try to quell the lingering panic and his racing heart. He ran a hand down his face to wipe away the cold sweat.

"Shit." He shook his head. Even though his clock read 2:45AM there was no way he was getting back to sleep tonight. Peter was back home but his brain couldn't seem to get with the program and believe that he was actually safe. The nightmares were starting to wear him down.

He got out of bed and changed into appropriate workshop attire, jeans and a t-shirt, since that was where he was headed. The past couple days he'd been toying with an idea for how to keep Peter safe, and after that dream he felt motivated to complete it tonight so Peter could get it as soon as possible. Just in case.

He stepped out of his bedroom and paused outside Peter's door. He should walk past it. Logically he knew Peter was asleep and perfectly fine, but he still couldn't stop himself from quietly turning the doorknob and poking his head inside his son's room. Peter slept soundly on his back, completely oblivious to Tony's nighttime rounds. A pile of pillows cushioned his bad leg and he appeared to be resting peacefully, although the way he was tangled in the covers didn't look all that comfortable.

Tony opened the door the rest of the way and crept silently across the room to his kid. As he got closer he could hear soft snuffling snores. Usually Peter didn't snore, but he also usually didn't sleep on his back or take painkillers that completely knocked him out either.

Tony gently maneuvered his son's sleep limp limbs so he could pull the sheets off and rearrange them so they softly fell back into place and completely covered Peter. He did the same with the down comforter that was half on the floor. Once the covers were nestled up against his kid's chin, Tony took a second to appreciate the serene sight in front of him. It helped to erase the remnants of fear left from his nightmare.

Ross hadn't won, and he never would. The man was dead. Tony had made sure of it. He brushed his son's hair back and dropped a kiss on his forehead. Peter didn't so much as stir. A smile tugged on Tony's lips. Sometimes he was blown away by the amount of love he could feel for one small human. It felt like his heart existed outside of his body, away from his protection, vulnerable to all the dangers and hurts of the outside world. He'd wrap Peter in bubble wrap and have him within sight at all times if he could, but he knew that wasn't possible, or even particularly sane. So instead, he had to satisfy himself with these small moments in time when he knew Peter was safe.

He reluctantly pried himself away from Peter's side, backing out silently and shutting the door behind him, the sight of Peter peacefully resting ingrained in his mind. With his worries now settled, he might've been able to go back to sleep, and he briefly considered it, but instead of going back to his bedroom, he wandered down to the communal floor, only slightly surprised to find the lights on. The Avengers as a whole kept odd hours. It wasn't rare for someone to be up all night or to get up in the middle of the night to grab a snack. He was, however, surprised to find several people up.

"Why wasn't I invited to this party?" He griped as he headed to the coffee pot in the kitchen, walking past Bruce, Steve, Clint, and Nat sitting on the couches watching something on the TV at low volume.

"We thought you were asleep." Steve answered.

"I was." He said simply and went to work making a pot of coffee. While he waited for it to brew, he walked over and stood to the side of the couch where Steve sat.

"Bad dream?" Steve asked without any judgement.

"What gave it away?"

"Lucky guess."

"The circles under your eyes have circles." Nat added.

"That's a gross overstatement." Tony argued and crossed his arms over his chest. He didn't feel like talking about it. They could all probably guess why he was having trouble sleeping anyway.

"So, what's everyone doing out here?" He asked, deflecting, his favorite tactic to avoid conversations he didn't want to have.

"What does it look like? Same thing as you. Not sleeping. We know he's your kid, but you're not the only one who's feeling a little fucked up from everything." Clint said with uncharacteristic honestly as he stared at the TV.

Ok, so his usual deflection tactic had definitely failed. He blinked, not quite sure what to say in response to Clint's blunt statement. It was true. They couldn't understand what it'd felt like as Peter's father, but he did recognize that they all still loved his kid and what had happened had been hard on them too.

"So you turn to," he glanced at the show on the television and recognized it instantly, "Downton Abbey? Oh dear god. Did Happy turn you all to the dark side?"

"Nice Star Wars reference. You learn that from the kid?" Nat asked.

Tony rolled his eyes.

"Sometimes a mind numbing period drama is the best kind of medicine." Bruce said.

"Is that your official doctor opinion?"

"Uh-huh." Bruce nodded distractedly as he grabbed handful of popcorn from the bowl in his lap.

"So you're saying watching garbage television will help me get over the nightmares in vivid technicolor of my kid dying? Really? That's how to fix this?" He'd meant it to come out jokingly, but instead, the words that escaped him had a desperate edge to them.

They all looked over at him and he could see the concern etched on all their faces. Great. Exactly what he'd been trying to avoid. The coffee maker beeped. Perfect timing.

"Why don't you sit down and join us?" Steve asked, patting the empty cushion next to him.

"Think I'll pass." He sniffed, going for obnoxious so they'd know to leave him alone. If he stayed he wasn't confident he wouldn't end up spilling his guts, or possibly crying, and he didn't have any desire to do either of those things at the moment.

"Tony." Steve sighed in frustration.

"Sorry." He shrugged, making it obvious he wasn't sorry at all as he turned and walked to the coffeemaker. "I've got a project calling my name."

"There's nothing you need to do down there that can't wait until morning." Steve argued.

"Wrong Cap." Tony said as he poured the coffee into his largest insulated mug. "This can't. Got something I have to make for the kid. You cope through boring period dramas. I prefer work. To each their own." He raised his mug in a brief mock salute.

He frowned and then took a sip of his still too hot coffee to cover it. He hadn't meant to let that truthful little tidbit slip out.

"Tony—" Steve started, probably to try to convince him to stay, but Bruce interrupted him.

"Steve." Bruce said softly and when Steve glanced over, Bruce shook his head almost imperceptibly.

Tony pretended he hadn't seen and kept walking toward the elevator.

"See you in the morning tin can." Clint called out from behind him.

He raised a hand in a halfhearted good bye but didn't turn around. The elevator doors closed behind him and as he descended he started mentally going over the specs for the device he planned to build for Peter. Something that would help keep him safe and hopefully help Tony's peace of mind, more so than any Downton Abbey episodes ever could.

* * *

"FRIDAY can you ask Peter to come down here?" Tony asked as he put the finishing touches on the watch in his hand.

"He's on his way boss." FRIDAY told him after a few seconds.

"Tell him there's no rush." Tony added. He didn't want Peter to try to hurry and end up falling. For someone with super abilities, he wasn't the most agile on crutches. Tony had watched him almost face plant yesterday. Luckily, Steve had been close enough to grab him before he hit the ground.

"I will relay the message." FRIDAY said.

Tony nodded as he turned the watch dial to the correct time. Once it was set, he turned it over in his hand, examining it for any imperfections. He didn't find any. Not that he'd expected to. He'd made it after all. The watch had turned out perfect.

Instead of a digital display, he'd chosen a classic watch face and stifled the desire to use a nicer casing. He didn't want to risk it getting stolen, so he'd gone simple instead. Silver links made up the watch band and the hands were a matching silver with a navy blue watch face and red numbers. He hoped Peter appreciated the subtle red and blue theme.

"Hey dad, what's up?" Peter greeted as he entered the workshop, "FRIDAY said you were looking for me."

"Come here." Tony said, beckoning him over with his arm.

He watched as Peter crutched his way over and stopped in front of him.

Tony stood and moved his desk chair so it was right behind Peter. "Take a seat."

Peter eyed him apprehensively but did as he was told. As soon as he was sitting, Tony grabbed the crutches and set them against the desk beside him.

"Am I in trouble?" Peter asked jokingly, but Tony heard the hint of nervousness in the question like he wasn't quite sure.

"No." Tony answered with a smile. "You're not in trouble. Actually…I have something for you."

Tony held the watch out to him.

Peter quirked his head and gave him a curious look as he took it.

"It's a…watch?"

"Very good." Tony said. "It's nice to know your powers of observation are as sharp as ever."

Peter rolled his eyes and asked, "Why are you giving me a watch?"

"It's more than a watch."

"Of course it is." Peter said wryly.

Tony watched as his kid studied the watch in his hand, trying to figure it out.

"Ok I give up." Peter said after a minute. "How is it more than a watch?"

"That's a highly advanced piece of Starktech in your hands."

"What? Are you marketing watches now? Because if you are, I hate to be the one to tell you this but your product doesn't seem very…"

"Very what?"

"It's not the type of design you typically go for?"

"Hm. Maybe I'm going for an image change."

"To what? Cheap and vintage?"

"Hey." Tony lightly cuffed the side of Peter's head and the kid smiled. "I'll have you know it's even harder to make something that advanced and have it look like that."

"So it's supposed to look like this?" Peter turned the watch around in his hands. "Is it some kind of antitheft outfitting?"

Tony grinned. Sometimes he forgot just how bright Peter was.

"That's exactly it."

"Ok. And is this one like a prototype? You want me to test it out for you?"

"I guess you could say that."

"How many of these is SI going to manufacture?"

"Just that one."

Peter's brow furrowed and he looked up from his inspection of the watch. "What? I don't understand."

"That watch you're holding is one of one. I made it just for you."

"Why? What does it do?"

"Put it on and I'll show you."

"Why can't you just tell me?" Peter asked probably just to be difficult.

"No. That's not as fun." Tony answered. "Put it on."

Peter let out a resigned sigh, but listened, and fastened the watch on his left wrist. "There. Happy?"

"Very." Tony said. "FRIDAY, how are we looking?"

"Everything is functioning optimally as projected Boss." FRIDAY answered.

Peter lifted his wrist to stare closer at the watch again. He shook his head. "I don't get it. What's it doing?"

"It's tracking your vitals and your location."

"So it's for spying on me?" Peter scoffed and moved to take it off.

Tony leaned forward and intercepted his hand before he could. "It's not for spying."

"Feels an awful lot like spying."

Tony sighed and knelt down in front of him, still holding Peter's wrist loosely as he looked up into his kid's eyes. "I promise it's not for spying. It's to keep you safe."

"You already watch me in the suit." Peter complained, lips thinning in obvious displeasure.

"I know. And you know why." Tony smiled sadly. "Same reason. To keep you safe. The contingencies in the suit protect Spiderman, but I made a big mistake by not having similar protections in place for Peter Parker."

Tony couldn't keep his eyes from flicking briefly to Peter's leg where his jeans hid the swath of bandages covering the still healing bullet wound.

"That wasn't your fault." Peter argued.

"Yes it was. I'm your father. It's my job to keep you safe, and I failed once already."

"No you—"

Tony continued, ignoring Peter's protests, "I'm _not_ going to make the same mistake twice. That's why I need you to wear the watch."

"I don't know." Peter eyed the watch dubiously as if it might jump out and bite him. "It still feels a little too much like big brother for my taste."

"It's not." Tony shook his head. "It doesn't surveil you. It's only outfitted with a GPS and a vitals tracker. So if you ever end up in trouble without your suit or phone, I can still find you. And if anything ever happens to you, if you ever get seriously hurt when you're not in the suit, I'll know right away."

"That's it?" Peter asked, still wary. "I thought you said this thing was high tech?"

"That _is _high tech. Sheesh you're getting spoiled." Tony stood, holding back a wince at the creaking in his knees.

"I'm pretty sure a Garmin does the same thing." Peter joked but Tony chose to take it as a win since his kid was no longer looking at the watch like it was something repulsive.

"Well a Garmin doesn't have FRIDAY installed in it, now does it?" Tony countered.

"FRIDAY's installed in this?" Peter jerked his arm away and held it out like the watch was going to attack him. "You just said it was only a GPS and a vitals monitor!"

"It is!"

"Then why is FRIDAY installed on it?" Peter narrowed his eyes at him, clearly suspicious.

"In case you're ever in a situation where you need her." Tony explained. "You can activate her and the watch will have the same capabilities as your phone."

"So she's not going to be listening in on every word I'm saying all day?"

"No."

Peter brought the watch in closer and twisted in his wrist around to look at it from every angle. "How do I activate her? Please tell me you didn't make it voice recognition with her name because that's going to be problematic in day to day life. You know, since Friday's also a day of the week."

"I know, and of course not. Remember you're talking to a genius here." Tony reached out to cradle Peter's wrist with the watch on it. "It's touch activated."

"How?"

"See these two side buttons?" Tony pointed to the prongs sticking out on the side that would usually be used to wind a watch but he'd reconfigured for a different purpose.

Peter nodded.

"Hold them down at the same time."

"Ok." Peter did it and the watch face flickered a faint blue, only noticeable if looking directly at it.

"Did you see that?"

"Yeah."

"That means FRIDAY's activated and online. She won't speak unless you talk to her but she'll be listening and recording. If you're in a situation where she can't speak, there's a silent mode. Just tap the top button again and instead of speakers, she'll respond on the watch face screen. To turn her off you do the same thing as you did to turn her on."

Peter repeated the action and the face flickered again.

"Ok that's kind of cool." Peter admitted.

"You ain't seen nothing yet kid. I want to show you something else. Turn FRIDAY on again."

Peter did.

"Ok now tap the face of the watch twice."

He watched as Peter complied. The watch face switched from the clock hands to a digital display similar to his Starkphone home screen.

"Whoa."

"Yep. Check this out." Tony smiled and tapped a keyboard screen icon. A hologram keyboard manifested a couple inches above the watch face. "It has text capabilities and a lot of other functions. But try to keep in on the DL all right? This is for emergency use, not for playing around at school. Got it?"

"Yeah."

"Oh I almost forgot. It's outfitted with one more feature. The most important one." Tony said seriously. "It has a panic button."

Peter's nose scrunched. Tony could tell he didn't like that idea so much, but he didn't voice it.

"I'd rather you have it and not need it, then need it and not have it." Tony explained.

"I guess."

"See this button here?" Tony pointed out the single button on the opposite side of the watch face.

Peter nodded.

"You can either hold it down for three seconds or tap it three times in a row. Either will activate it. Got it?"

"Yeah."

"Only use it for emergencies."

"Ok." Peter said softly.

"But if you need it, I want you to _use _it. Ok?"

Peter nodded.

"I want you to wear it whenever you're not in the Tower or in the suit."

"As long as you promise you'll only use it in case of emergencies and not to spy on me."

Tony held up a hand and vowed, "I promise."

"Ok."

"Thank you." Tony smiled and ruffled Peter's hair before letting his hand drop onto his kid's shoulder. He gave it a squeeze and leaned down to kiss the top of Peter's head.

"Now come on. Let's head upstairs. I hear Cap's cooking." He handed Peter his crutches and stayed close as his kid stood and adjusted the crutches under his arms.

"He is. He's making enchiladas." Peter threw him a mischievous look. "I'll race you upstairs."

"As much as I'd love to take you up on that, because I think this might be the only time I'd ever have a chance of actually beating you, I'm going to have to pass." He fell into easy step beside Peter, settling a hand lightly against his upper back as he started crutching toward the elevator. "Let's just take it slow for now."

"Party pooper."

"Yeah that's me. Party pooper dad."

Peter smiled at his response and Tony's heart stuttered briefly in his chest. Similar moments had been happening ever since he'd gotten Peter back. He'd be in the middle of doing something mundane when he'd suddenly be struck by the awe that Peter was there. He was ok. Hurt, but healing. Alive. It could've gone much differently. He could've lost his son. It was the reason he'd been having such a hard time sleeping. The reason he'd woken in a fit of fear and spent the rest of the night making the watch on Peter's wrist.

"What?" Peter asked him once they were in the elevator. Tony realized he'd been staring.

"Nothing." He shook his head and gave his kid a tight smile. He didn't want any of his worries weighing on Peter. "Nothing at all."

* * *

A/N: Whew, sorry it took me so long to post this. After Endgame I got distracted writing a fix it to help me get over it. But now that that's done and I've sort of got my writing act back together again (after a bad case of amotivation), I can start posting for this story. I don't have a specific update schedule in mind but I'll try not to go too long inbetween chapters. Hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

"Does that hurt?" Bruce asked as he pressed near the wound on Peter's leg while Tony stood off to the side and tried not to fidget.

"No."

Bruce hummed and shot Peter a look that Tony had been on the receiving end of more than a few times. It was his 'I know you're bullshiting me, but I'm too polite to call you on it' look.

"Are you sure?" Bruce asked and pressed a little harder. Even Tony caught his son's slight flinch.

"Um maybe just a tiny bit." Peter admitted.

Bruce nodded. "Lay down for a second."

Peter shifted, pulling his legs up and resting them on the bed so he was no longer sitting with them dangling over the side. Bruce kept ahold of his bad leg and helped lift it as he moved, but Tony still noticed Peter's wince. He knew his kid didn't need his help, but he couldn't stop from giving him a reassuring shoulder squeeze.

"Let me know if any of this hurts." Bruce said once Peter was settled on his back. Tony watched as his friend moved his kid's leg, slowly flexing and extending it.

"How does that feel?" Bruce asked.

"It aches a little, but not too bad."

Bruce nodded and flexed Peter's leg so is it was bent with his foot flat on the bed.

"Try to straighten it out. Slide your heel down."

Peter hesitated for a second but then he did it. Bruce watched Peter's face carefully throughout the movement.

"No pain?" Bruce asked.

Peter shook his head. "Not really. Just sore."

"Ok. Now bring your foot back up. Flex your knee."

Peter did, and he still didn't seem to be in any pain.

"Good." Bruce nodded. "Now straighten it back out again."

Tony watched as Peter's movements grew less tentative now that he knew it didn't hurt.

"Ok. Now try to lift your leg up off the bed."

Peter lifted it a few inches into the air.

"Good. Try to hold it there." Bruce said, hand hovering under his ankle in case he needed to catch it to keep it from falling roughly back onto the bed.

After a handful of seconds, Peter's leg started shaking with the effort.

"A little longer. You can do it." Bruce coached him.

Tony could see the tension on Peter's face as he grit his teeth and tried to do as Bruce asked. He managed another ten seconds or so before he gave in with a grunt and Bruce caught his leg before it could fall.

"Sorry." Peter took a few short breaths. "I can't."

"No that was good." Bruce smiled at him. "I think you're ready to try walking."

"Really?" Peter asked, excitement wiping away the fatigue.

"Really?" Tony echoed. The kid could barely hold his leg up and Bruce thought he was ready to walk?

Bruce nodded, smiling knowingly at Tony. "Let's see how it goes."

"Great." Peter sat up and moved his legs over the edge of the bed. "I'm ready."

"Take it slow." Bruce warned and grasped Peter's upper arm to support him. Tony mirrored him and did the same with Peter's other arm.

Peter slid off the bed and onto his good foot. He tentatively placed the foot of his hurt leg down on the ground.

"How's that feel?" Bruce asked once Peter was standing normally, weight balanced between both legs.

"I think it's ok."

"You think?" Tony asked. He didn't like the hint of uncertainty in Peter's answer.

"It's fine Dad." Peter rolled his eyes and then looked at Bruce, "Can I try walking now?"

"Yes, but take it slow like I said. One step at a time, and Tony and I are going to help you."

"Ok." Peter didn't waste a second before taking a small step forward.

Tony automatically tightened his grip, afraid Peter's leg would give way and he'd topple to the ground. But he didn't. His leg supported his weight just fine. After the first step, he took another, and then another, and pretty soon he'd crossed the Medbay, reassuring Tony and Bruce he was ok all along the way.

They stopped when they ran out of room and Bruce smiled as he suggested, "How about you walk back to the bed on your own now? Think you can do it?"

Tony shot him a sharp questioning look, not at all comfortable leaving Peter bereft without support yet, but Bruce refused to look at him.

"Yeah. Ok." Peter smiled and pulled away from them, walking slowly back to the bed. Bruce followed a few paces behind, but Tony hovered a couple feet off to the side. Just in case.

It turned out Bruce knew what he was talking about. Peter made it back fine. He didn't falter once.

"How was that?" Peter asked, beaming once he completed his trek. Tony didn't see a hint of exertion or pain on his countenance, only pride at his success.

"Good job kid." Tony patted him on the back.

"That was really good Peter." Bruce agreed. "I think it's safe to ditch the crutches."

"Awesome." Peter grinned.

"But," Bruce held a finger up, "no crutches doesn't mean walking all over the place or running around Spidermanning."

"Oh don't worry. There won't be any Spidermanning." Tony added.

Peter looked abashed at the reminder, but Bruce shot him a confused look. Tony sighed.

"He's grounded, remember?" Tony had told all the Avengers about Peter's hack job on FRIDAY and subsequent punishment a couple days ago.

"Oh that's right." Bruce said with a wince as he cast a sympathetic glance toward Peter.

Peter's cheeks flushed and he shot Tony a slightly betrayed look.

"Well I guess we won't have to worry about the Spidermanning part for awhile." Bruce said as pulled off his glasses and cleaned them on his shirt.

"Nope, no Spidermanning for a long while." Tony reiterated, reaching out to ruffle Peter's hair to soften the blow.

Peter ducked away with an eye roll.

"You guys know that's not actually a verb, right?" Peter asked as he tried to fix the mess of his hair.

When both he and Bruce frowned at him, Peter clarified, "Spidermanning."

"Yes it is." Tony argued. "It is if I say it is."

Bruce snorted.

"Technically, you should say 'going out as Spiderman'." Peter corrected.

"That's too many words kid." Tony said.

"It's really not."

"Well, if you want to get technical it should be Spiderkidding not Spidermanning, since, you know, you're a kid and all."

Peter narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth to argue when Bruce cleared his throat, interrupting their banter before it could devolve any further. "Anyway, you're good to go. But still try to stay off your feet as much as possible. At least for now. And let me know if you start having any problems."

"Ok." Peter readily agreed.

"I mean it. If it starts bothering you, don't keep it to yourself." Bruce said, eyeing him seriously over the rims of his glasses.

"Ok." Peter repeated, more sincerely this time.

"I'll check in on you tomorrow."

Peter nodded.

"All right kid. Let's go. Brucie here has things he needs to do and there's a couch with your name on it upstairs."

Peter groaned, but Tony could tell it wasn't heartfelt.

Bruce just chuckled at the familiar teenage angst.

Tony grasped Peter's shoulders from behind and nudged him gently toward the elevator. They made it there without incident. Tony couldn't wait until Peter was completely back to normal. Maybe then he'd finally be able to put this whole nightmare inducing event behind him.

* * *

"So um you told Bruce about the no Spiderman thing?" Peter asked from his position on the couch with his head in Tony's lap as they watched some kind of cop show Peter seemed to like.

"Yep." Tony said as he ran his fingers through his kid's soft hair.

"Why?" Peter asked, eyes flitting up at him with a narrowing of his brow.

"Because I need all the help I can get to keep an eye on you so you don't get up to your shenanigans." He answered, his own eyes dancing in amusement.

Peter huffed and went back to watching TV. Another few minutes of the show passed in comfortable silence before he asked, "So how long am I grounded for?"

"Three months." Tony answered. He knew it was severe, but it needed to be to keep Peter from doing something like it again.

Peter's eyes widened in shock, but he surprisingly didn't protest the punishment.

"Harsh." He mumbled instead and sighed. "I guess I deserve it."

Tony hummed. All the white hot anger he'd felt about it before had evaporated in the aftermath of his kid's kidnapping and near death experience.

"Can we count this week as time served? For good behavior?" Peter asked hopefully.

Tony huffed out a short breath of air, feeling equal parts amusement and annoyance. He shook his head ruefully. "Sure. Why not? You still have two months and three weeks left to go though."

Peter nodded. "I know. And I know I told you before, but I really am sorry."

"I know kiddo." Tony kept running his fingers through Peter's strands, trying to keep the tone of the conversation light so he could hopefully lull his son into sleep. It was past time for his afternoon nap, but he hadn't shown any signs of fatigue. Maybe he really was on the mend.

"You were really mad at me." Peter continued so softly the sentence was barely audible.

"Yeah I was bud." He frowned. It was the second time Peter had brought up his anger in regard to that situation. Maybe it needed a little more examination. "Did that bother you?"

Peter shrugged.

"Hmm?" He prompted, scratching his kid's scalp gently. Peter's eyes closed predictably.

"I guess." Peter admitted with a sigh.

"Why?"

"I don't know. I guess it maybe kind of scared me a little."

Tony swallowed hard and his fingers froze, memories of his own fear of his own dad bubbling up.

Peter turned to look up at him and quickly correctly, "I'm not saying I was scared of you. Just that it was scary."

"Ok." He let out a little puff of air in relief but asked, "If it wasn't me then what was scary about it?"

"I don't like fighting with you. And I know we've fought before, but you haven't been like_ that_ since the whole ferry thing and I think maybe it brought me back there, and we weren't exactly good then." Peter hesitated and glanced up at him again.

Tony nodded in encouragement for Peter to continue.

"I guess I was worried that, like back then, you wouldn't think I was worth the trouble anymore."

"Never." Tony said with the gravity of solemn promise.

"I know that now." Peter smiled up at him. "We talked about it after you got me back, remember?"

He nodded. He did, but he wasn't sure if Peter did with all the drugs that'd been coursing through his veins, it would've been enough to make anyone's memory hazy.

"Um, for what it's worth, I promise I'll never hack FRIDAY again."

"What about promising to never sneak out again?"

Peter looked up at him, mischief written all over his features. "Well, I've got to keep you on your toes somehow."

Tony shook his head and ruffled Peter's hair. "You're a demon child."

Peter laughed, leaning into the contact instead of away.

"Good thing I love you." Tony said, letting all the affection he felt for his kid saturate the words.

Peter smiled, his own feelings apparent as he echoed, "I love you too old man."

Instead of faking indignance at the title, he scoffed and said, "Damn right. And don't you forget it. I'm not getting any younger, and all the grey in my hair is from you. I don't know how much longer my poor heart can take all this stress, so can you try to cool it, and stay under the radar, and behave for awhile? For me?"

"I suppose I could do that. For a little while at least."

"How about until you turn eighteen?"

Peter laughed and complained, "I have to live my life sometime."

"That's what college is for."

Peter rolled his eyes.

"Ok how about this, just promise me no more getting kidnapped or almost dying." Tony hesitated briefly before adding, "Or actually dying. Fair?"

Peter's amusement faded slightly, and he nodded, looking chagrined as he agreed, "Ok. I guess I can do that."

"Thank you."

* * *

Peter turned the corner of the hallway and stopped in front of the secretary's desk. He waited patiently for her to notice him as she examined something on her desk. When a few seconds had gone by, he cleared his throat quietly. She looked up and her mouth parted in surprise.

"Oh sorry. I didn't hear you." She apologized.

"It's ok. I was quiet." He smiled. "Is uh Ms. Potts in?"

"She is." The woman said hesitantly. "Do you have an appointment?"

"Um no but I was hoping I could talk to her real quick? It'll only take a minute."

"And you are?"

"Right. Sorry. I'm Peter. Peter Parker. Ms. Potts knows me, I promise." He stepped forward and held out his hand.

She shook it weakly still looking perplexed as she asked, "Are you a new employee?"

"Oh no. I'm just um…" He trailed off, not quite sure how to explain his relationship to Pepper when no one knew he was Tony's kid. Maybe this had been a bad idea, but he couldn't think of any other way to talk to Pepper alone without Tony finding out about it. Although knowing Tony, he might still find out about this. There wasn't much that went on in his Tower that he wasn't aware of. Peter would have to think of an appropriate alibi for the visit just in case.

"I'm family." He settled on. It was sort of true.

The secretary frowned and looked him up and down, hopefully deciding that he wasn't some serial killer or weirdo since he'd cleared security and been granted access to their floor.

Still, he tried his best to look as innocent as possible under her scrutiny.

"Let me check with her." The woman said finally, picking up the phone to the left of her computer and pressing a button.

"Ms. Potts, there's a Peter Parker here requesting to see you? He said you knew him?" She said into the phone, her tone disbelieving.

"Oh." The woman's eyes widened. "Of course. I'll send him right in then."

She hung up the phone and stared at him, scrutinizing him for an entirely different reason now.

"So can I…" He motioned toward the closed office door.

She straightened and cleared her throat before telling him, "You can go right in."

She pressed a button on the underside of her desk and Peter heard an audible click as the door unlocked. Impressive security, although he should've expected nothing less.

"Thank you." He smiled politely and walked right in, not sparing a glance to the secretary even though he could feel her gaze on his back.

"Peter." Pepper greeted him warmly, standing up from behind her desk to walk over to him and give him a hug. "What a nice surprise. You're looking better. No more crutches?"

"Nah. Bruce said I could get rid of them yesterday."

"And your leg's feeling ok?"

"Yeah it's not bad. Hopefully I'll get to go back to school in a couple days." He really hoped so anyway. It felt like he'd just gone back after the school had been rebuilt and now he'd been out again for over a week.

"Just in time for holiday break?" Pepper teased.

"Yeah I guess." He smiled. "But at least I'll get to see my friends before I have to spend the entire break trying to catch up on all the work I missed."

Pepper nodded and gestured toward the sitting area with a small couch and a couple chairs off to the side in her office. "Why don't we have a seat? You can tell me what I've done to deserve this great excuse for a break."

Peter laughed. Pepper seemed to genuinely mean it. It still surprised him sometimes how much Tony's friends and the Avengers actually cared about him. He knew Tony did, but that didn't automatically mean everyone else had to. For some reason, they all did anyway.

Peter chose a seat on the sofa and Pepper sat down on the other end of it, slipping her heels off and turning to face him with her legs curled underneath her. Even in such a relaxed position she still managed to look regal.

"I was actually wondering if you could help me with something?" He started out right away.

"For you? Anything." She said warmly.

"You know how Christmas is coming up soon?"

She nodded. It was only a week away.

"Well I had this idea for what I wanted to get Tony as a present, and I wanted it to be a surprise, but I wasn't sure how to go about it without him finding out, or if it was even possible to do it without him finding out." He rambled. "So, I thought I'd ask you and maybe you could help?"

"Of course. What is it you want to get him? I have to admit I'm curious. He's notoriously impossible to buy for."

"It's not something I want to buy. At least I don't think I have to buy it. Maybe it actually does cost some money." He frowned.

Pepper leaned forward and placed a hand over his to stop him from wringing them in his lap. "Before you start worrying, why don't you tell me what it is first?"

"Right." He nodded. "Um, I…I want to change my name."

Pepper's brow furrowed slightly before it shot to her hairline, obviously realizing what Peter meant. A smile slowly spread across her face.

"That's really sweet." She said. "Tony will like that a lot."

"You think?" He asked, suddenly insecure. He'd figured Tony would like it, but he hadn't been entirely sure, and he hadn't wanted to run it by any of the other Avengers, or Happy, because when it came down to it, he didn't trust them not to ruin the surprise. For being superheroes and spies, they sure were huge gossips and terrible secret keepers.

"I do." Pepper patted his leg in reassurance.

"Ok." He managed to give her a slight smile in return. "So um, how do I go about doing that? Without him finding out? Is that even possible?"

"Oh I'm sure it is. I can't imagine it's all that complicated, but I'll talk to our lawyers about it and get things rolling."

"And you're sure Tony won't find out?" Peter asked.

"I promise he won't find out. Our lawyers are very discreet, and I'll make sure everything goes through me."

"Thanks Pepper." His smile widened.

"You're very welcome." Pepper said as she unfurled her legs and stood. "Now, I'm starving and it's almost lunch time. I don't suppose I could convince you to take an old lady out to lunch?"

"You're not old." Peter rolled his eyes. "But I'd love to go to lunch with you."

"Great." She held a hand out and helped him to his feet. "What sounds good to you?"

"I don't care. Whatever you want."

"There's a new fusion restaurant on 5th I've been meaning to try. It's a blend of Spanish and Caribbean. My friend told me it was delicious. Does that sound good?"

"Yeah sure. Let's go there." Peter readily agreed.

Pepper nodded and paused to type something on her phone. A few seconds later it vibrated as she received a text message in response.

"Happy's going to drive us so I don't have to worry about trying to find parking. That'd be a nightmare." Pepper informed him.

"Oh. If Happy's busy, I wouldn't mind taking a cab." He knew his dad and SI employed the man, but Peter still felt guilty whenever he had Happy drive him around.

"We're not taking a cab." Pepper shook her head, looking amused at the suggestion. "Does Tony really let you ride around in cabs?"

"Um…" He thought about it. "I guess it hasn't really come up?"

"Well I can tell you I don't think he'd like it." Pepper said and started ushering him toward the door of her office.

"Why not? It's not like anyone knows who I am."

"Let's just say Tony's always been overly cautious when it comes to the people he cares about, and I can't see him letting you to ride in a stranger's car when he could have Happy take you instead."

"Yeah you're probably right." He admitted.

As he thought about Tony's overprotective instincts, another realization struck him while Pepper held her office door open for him to pass through. His eyes widened and he looked up at her before blurting out, "I guess that means the subway's out too?"

Pepper laughed and reached out to pat his shoulder. "You would guess right."

Peter sighed, face falling. He wondered why he hadn't realized sooner that he hadn't actually taken a cab since they'd moved back to the city from the compound, and the one time he'd taken the subway, he'd done so without Tony knowing about it, and it had only been because decathlon practice had been canceled. Either Tony took him everywhere himself or he had Happy take him.

As they walked past the secretary, Pepper informed her, "I'm going to lunch. I'll be back in an hour or two."

"Of course Ms. Potts." The woman nodded back. "Have a good lunch."

The secretary eyed Peter again.

"Um it was nice to meet you." He said over his shoulder as Pepper guided him toward the elevator.

"You as well Mr. Parker." She said in response. He was surprised she remembered his name, but he figured she must be excellent at her job. Pepper wouldn't hire anyone less.

"Oh Ms. Potts." The receptionist called out as Pepper pushed the button to the elevator.

"Yes?"

"Would you like me to add Mr. Parker to your list of pre-approved visitors?"

"Yes Shannon. Thank you." Pepper answered.

"Very well."

The elevator dinged and Peter stepped in, Pepper a step behind him.

Once the doors slid shut, Peter commented, "She seems nice. And competent."

Pepper smiled. "I'm glad you think so. She's been working for me for a couple years now. I'd hate to have to fire her if she was rude to you."

Peter glanced over at Pepper, trying to decide if she was joking. It didn't seem like it. Something warm blossomed in his chest.

Another few seconds passed in silence as the elevator descended. Peter tried to get his ears to pop as the pressure changed, one of the side effects of living in the tallest building in New York.

"Oh," Pepper said suddenly with a slight shake of her head, as if she couldn't believe she hadn't already considered whatever it was that had popped into her mind. She turned to him. "Before I forget, when I talk to the lawyers, what should I tell them you want to change your name to?"

"Um…Stark?" He thought that'd be obvious.

Pepper let out a small laugh. "Of course. I mean, what about the rest of your name? Are you changing your middle name to Parker or dropping it all together?"

He knew Pepper didn't mean it maliciously, but the way the phrase came out, the dropping it part, still made him cringe.

"Sorry." Pepper apologized. "If you want, you can think about it and I can let the lawyers know once you decide." She offered, misinterpreting the reason for his unease.

"No, it's not that. Uh, I've thought about it." He had thought about it. A lot actually. "You can tell them I want it to be Peter Parker Stark."

In the end, he'd decided to keep Parker as his middle name and forgo Benjamin. Ben was still a Parker along with May and his parents. And he knew Ben would understand. They all would. They'd told him as much when he'd been officially dead. It was actually what had given him the confidence to decide to change his name.

"Peter Parker Stark." Pepper echoed, trying the words out on her tongue. She nodded and gave him a warm smile. "It has a nice ring to it."

"Yeah? I thought so too."

"He's going to love it." She didn't have to specify who she meant by he.

"I hope so. It's not too forward? Or overstepping? You don't think I need to ask him first?"

"Definitely not. Trust me, he's going to love it." Pepper kept smiling, eyes twinkling. "I think you'll be giving him one of the best presents he's ever gotten."

Peter didn't know if that was true. He figured Pepper was exaggerating, but then he remembered the adoption paperwork Tony had given him on his birthday. That had been way better than the Audi. The love he felt toward his dad swelled just at the thought of it.

"I hope so." He said, unable to completely keep his deep seated insecurities at bay.

"I know so." Pepper said with absolute certainty.

Maybe she was right.

Either way, it was too late to turn back now.

* * *

Thank you so much for the amazing reception and comments to this story! It really makes my day. I have a lot going on with work and life so I can't promise speedy updates, but I promise to try to update as fast as I can.  
Also, if you want, come check me out on tumblr at starryknight09.  
I wrote a couple extra missing scenes by request there that I haven't posted on AO3. You can find them by searching 'missing scene' under my tumblr.


	3. Chapter 3

Peter walked toward the Audi that was waiting in its usual spot outside the school. Tony had relented with Bruce's blessing and let him go back to school yesterday, so he'd at least gotten two days in before school let out for winter break today. It was enough time to catch up with his friends and collect a huge chunk of make-up work to finish over the next couple weeks. Awesome.

He tugged the passenger side door open and crawled in, unable to hide his surprise at seeing Pepper at the wheel instead of Happy or Tony.

"Hi honey." She greeted him warmly.

"Hey Pepper. Um, what are you doing here? Not that it's not like great to see you, but what I mean is—"

"I asked Tony if I could pick you up." Pepper interrupted his nervous rambling as she pulled into traffic, avoiding the mess of cars seamlessly and without swearing like Happy usually did.

"Oh cool." And it was, but Peter was still a little confused. Pepper had never picked him up from school before. Not that they weren't friendly, but they didn't have the same close relationship like he had with his dad and some of the other Avengers. Maybe his visit a couple days earlier had inspired her to want to spend more time with him?

"Don't worry. He wasn't suspicious." Pepper said, glancing over at him.

"Suspicious?" Now he was really confused.

"I should probably explain, shouldn't I?" Pepper said, catching her lapse.

"Um…yeah?"

Pepper shot him a bemused smile.

"I talked to our lawyers about your request and they got everything all squared away." She explained.

"Really? Wow, that was fast."

"They're very good at what they do. All that's left to finalize everything is your signature."

Peter smiled. "Thank you."

"You don't need to thank me, but you're welcome." Pepper patted his leg. "So, where do you want me to take you to grab a quick bite? I told Tony I'd feed you before I brought you back."

Peter rolled his eyes. "You don't have to."

"I want to. Besides, I'm starving. I skipped lunch for a finance meeting today."

"Fun."

Pepper laughed. "So what'll it be?"

"Um, do you like Indian food?"

"I do."

"There's this great hole in the wall place nearby. We could go there?"

"That depends. By hole in the wall do you mean at risk of being shut down by the food inspection service or more like a small family owned undiscovered gem?"

"Definitely the latter. My friends and I go there all the time."

Pepper smiled again. "Ok, then I'm in. Tell me where to go."

Peter directed her the rest of the way. The drive didn't take more than fifteen minutes and the conversation between them flowed easily.

Ten minutes later they were still looking for a parking spot, which wasn't ideal, but Peter felt like they were bonding over it.

"There! There's a spot." He said, pointing as he spotted a car pulling out from a spot that looked like it would be a tight parallel park.

"I see it. Good eyes." Pepper said and sped ahead, easily fitting the Audi in the space without a second of hesitation.

"Wow you're really good at this."

"What? Driving?" Pepper asked, amused.

"Parallel parking. I probably would've hit one or both of the cars around us."

"You'll get it. It just takes practice." Pepper encouraged as she checked her side mirror to make sure a passing vehicle wouldn't hit her before stepping out of the car.

"Maybe." Peter said, not so certain. He climbed out of the car and shut his door behind him.

"I'll let you in on a secret." Pepper said, slinging an arm around his shoulders and leaning in close as if what she was about to tell him was confidential. "Your dad's not very good at parallel parking either."

"Seriously?"

Pepper nodded. "But don't tell him you heard it from me."

Now that he thought about it, Peter realized he didn't think he'd ever actually seen his dad try to parallel park. Huh. He laughed.

"So if you ever need any help perfecting your parallel parking technique, maybe ask someone besides him." Pepper suggested gently.

"Got it."

"Are you sure this isn't too far for your leg?" Pepper asked, frowning when she saw they still had a couple long blocks to go before they got there. She'd already offered to drop him off when they'd been hunting for a parking space earlier.

"No, it's fine. It's practically back to normal." That was a slight exaggeration. It ached by the end of the day and certain movements made it twinge, but overall it wasn't too bad. He knew he'd be able to make it to the restaurant without much of a problem.

"Ok, but let me know if starts bothering you or if you need a break."

"Pepper I'm fine." He complained, sick of everyone babying him, his dad's company's CEO included apparently.

Pepper gave him 'the look', the one even his dad wilted under when he was on the receiving end of it, and Peter found himself quickly agreeing, "Ok ok. I will."

"Good."

As they walked together toward the restaurant, Pepper kept her arm draped loosely across his shoulders, but she didn't lean on him, probably not wanting to add any extra weight in case it hurt his leg. But his leg held up and didn't give him any trouble the rest of the way.

They walked into the restaurant and the hostess seated them at a table near the window. The hustle and bustle outside was in direct contradiction to the near emptiness inside. Peter glanced at his watch, the one Tony had given him and he'd worn every day since, as requested. 3:30PM. To be fair, it was an odd time to eat.

"So what's good here?" Pepper asked once the waiter had taken their drink orders and left them to peruse the menus.

"I always get the chicken tikka masala with garlic naan, but the vindaloo is good too. That's what Ned likes. And I hear they have good biryani, but I've never tried it."

"So everything's good?" Pepper teased.

Peter smiled.

The waiter came back to take their order and Peter ordered his usual while Pepper ordered the palak paneer.

"Before I forget," Pepper said, pulling out a pen and a manila folder from her oversized purse, "I have the papers you need to sign."

She flipped the folder open and placed it in front of him. She handed him the pen and pointed to an area marked with a sticky note arrow on the form. "You need to sign here."

Peter did.

She turned the page and pointed to another arrow by a blank line. "And here."

Peter signed.

She turned to the last page. "And here."

As he signed again, his eyes caught another familiar signature on the line above his. His dad's.

"Perfect. You're all set." Pepper said, reaching to take the papers away.

"Wait, I thought you said dad didn't know about this." He said in confusion, pointing to the signature.

"Oh he doesn't." Pepper smiled in amusement. "I slipped these in with some other SI forms he needed to sign. He never reads any of the things I put in front of him to sign."

"He doesn't?" It surprised him, but didn't, at the same time.

"Most of the time, no." Pepper said, taking the papers and readjusting them before closing the folder and carefully shoving them back into her purse.

"Isn't that…kind of bad?"

Pepper laughed. "It bodes well for me and the future of SI that you think that. But don't worry, he reads the things he really needs to. The rest he trusts my judgement on."

"Oh, I guess that's ok then." If Pepper was looking things over, it was fine. She was more than trustworthy.

"I'm glad you approve." She said, and Peter couldn't quite tell if she was teasing or genuinely pleased, so instead of saying anything he just smiled.

"I'll hand the papers off to the lawyers as soon as I get back and they'll get them pushed through for you. Once it's official I'll let you know."

"Thanks Pepper." He said and she waved off his appreciation.

They chitchatted while they waited for their food, which came out surprisingly fast. Probably because there weren't many other customers to wait on.

Peter was in the midst of his last bite, polishing off his entire meal without any difficulty, when Pepper's phone rang.

She checked the screen and frowned. "Sorry. I have to take this."

Peter shrugged. "It's fine."

"Hi Melanie." Pepper answered, then listened as whoever was on the other line spoke. As Peter watched, Pepper's frown deepened.

"I'm sorry, _what_?" Pepper asked suddenly, although it didn't actually seem like a question. Pepper's eyes met his across the table and he could see real anger there intermixed with worry. She looked away and listened for another few long seconds.

"Yes, I hear you. No. No, don't do anything yet. Don't make a statement. Just…sit on it for now. I know. I'll explain when I get back. I'm away from the office but I'm coming back right now and we'll talk." Pepper sighed wearily. "Yes, believe me I understand. Yes. I'll talk to him. I'll let you know. Ok. Thank you Melanie. Bye."

Pepper hung up looking more flustered than Peter had ever seen her before. "I'm so sorry Peter but we're going to have to cut this short. I have to get back to the office."

"That's all right. Is everything ok?"

Pepper's lips thinned. "Not really, but I'm going to try to fix it."

Peter appreciated that she didn't lie to him.

"Anything I can do?"

"Not right now honey but if there is, I'll let you know." Pepper said, a small smile breaking through the stress on her face.

Pepper stood and Peter hurried to follow, watching as she pulled a crisp $100 bill out her wallet and dropped it on the table. Apparently it wasn't just Tony that tipped extravagantly. "Let's go."

"Ok."

As they walked back out to the car, Pepper's phone rang nonstop. She didn't answer it, but her expression grew more and more grim with each call. He hoped whatever was wrong wasn't too serious, but he had a bad feeling it wasn't good.

* * *

"Tony we have a problem." Pepper announced as she barged into his workshop.

"One sec." He said from under his car where he was in the middle of replacing a part.

"No, now." Pepper said sternly and he could tell she meant business. "It's about Peter."

Tony rolled out from under the car, wrench still in his hand. "What? Is he ok?" He asked, sitting up and glancing around, not seeing his kid.

"He's fine but—"

"Didn't you pick him up from school today?"

"I did but—"

"Then where is he?"

"I assume he's upstairs." She answered.

"He didn't want to see me?"

"I don't know. Maybe he had homework. That's really not what's important right now Tony." Pepper sighed becoming visibly frustrated.

"Fine. What's wrong?"

"Have you seen the news recently?"

Tony raised an eyebrow at her. She knew he wasn't the type to stay up to date on the nonsense the media spewed out.

"Sorry. Stupid question." Pepper rubbed her forehead. "But you're going to want to see this."

She rummaged over his desktop and found the remote buried under a stack of papers.

"I just got done talking with Melanie and she agreed we need to come up with a plan for how to approach this." Pepper spoke as she picked up the remote and aimed it at the television in the corner of the workshop, turning it on.

"How to approach what?" He asked, standing while he wiped his greasy hands off on a towel.

Before Pepper had a chance to answer, the television reporter's words caught his attention. He spun around and stared at the screen.

"And we have a photograph we're going to show you viewers. Something that's sure to get everyone talking." The TV anchor said dramatically. "It was taken last week at the Accords amendments signing by a government aid in the room the Avengers went to after the signing."

A somewhat grainy photo popped up on the screen.

"As you can see, the quality of the photo isn't great, but you can definitely see Tony Stark sitting on the couch in the background surrounded by some of his closest friends. In case you don't know who they are, we'll identify them for you. Pepper Potts the CEO of Stark Industries is standing right behind him. You can see the head of Stark's security, the man who used to be Stark's personal bodyguard before he became Ironman, who goes by the name Happy Hogan, sitting in the armchair across from Stark. Colonel James Rhodes, also known as War Machine or Iron Patriot depending on your preference, who is Tony Stark's longest standing friend, is standing next to Hogan. But the big question here, the question everyone's going to be asking, is who is this kid sitting on the couch with Tony Stark?"

The screen zoomed in to show the blurry profile of a teenage boy with brown hair, looking at Tony with a smile on his face as Tony said something to Rhodes.

"Shit." Tony swore.

"Exactly." Pepper agreed.

The news broadcast continued to play.

"Who is this kid that he gets admittance to the room housing the Avengers after the signing? And not only that, but he's also clearly gained acceptance into Tony's Stark's closest inner circle. And is sitting next to Tony Stark himself?"

"And you can see the way Stark's facing him in the image even as he talks to Colonel Rhodes." The co-anchor commented. "We actually had one of our body language experts analyze the photo and according to her, since Stark's shoulders along with his hips are angled toward this boy, it's an indicator that to Stark, this boy is the most important person in the room. The one most deserving of his attention. In a group of his closest friends. It sure makes you wonder…"

Tony shook his head. What was wrong with these people? How did they have so much time on their hands that they could analyze his body language in a blurry photo?

"It really does John." The original anchor commented again.

"So the big question on our minds and soon to be on everyone else's is…who is this kid?"

Pepper turned the TV off again.

He turned toward her, lips pressed together in a thin line. "So…"

"It's playing on every network. We need to figure out how to approach this and we need to figure it out now before it snowballs out of our control." Pepper said.

"Dammit." He threw the towel down in anger. This was the very last thing he wanted to happen, for Peter's relationship with him to become public knowledge. "How'd they even get that photograph?"

"I don't think how they got it is really that important right now."

"I think it's very important. Someone got close enough to us to take that photo and sell it. Someone with obviously less than honorable intentions. They shouldn't even be able to use it! Peter's a minor."

"They don't know that." Pepper answered reasonably. "They don't know who he is."

"I don't care. It's still illegal. I'm suing." Tony complained, trying find an outlet for all the anger bubbling up in him.

"Before you start," Pepper held up a hand, "we need to go over our options. Melanie and I already discussed some before I came here."

"Melanie?"

"Our head of PR? Melanie." Pepper sighed again. "Honestly Tony, sometimes I wonder how you can be so smart and still not remember a single member of your staff's names."

"I know your name." He countered.

"That doesn't count."

"It should."

"Can we focus please?" Pepper cut off the argument before it could devolve any further.

"Right. Yes." He plopped down in his desk chair and looked up at Pepper standing in front of him. "I'm listening."

"First option, we could hold a press conference and confirm the truth. That Peter's your son. That you adopted him this past summer after an unfortunate accident left him without any family, and then ask for respect and privacy given that he's a minor. The minor status will at least afford him some protection legally."

Tony made a face. "Got to say, I'm not loving that option."

"Me neither," Pepper agreed, "but it's an option."

"What's option B?"

"We lie and say he's an intern for Stark Industries. That he's a minor. Request privacy and respect. Same sort of thing."

Tony ran a hand through his hair. He didn't love the idea of lying when it came to Peter, but that sounded better than admitting to the world who Peter really was. He could only imagine how the paparazzi would hound the poor kid endlessly if they knew.

"And option C?" He rubbed his forehead, already feeling a headache forming.

"We say he's my nephew or Happy's nephew or keep it more nonspecific and say he's a family friend."

"They're not going to dig that up and find out it's a lie?" Tony twisted his face into an expression of disbelief.

"It's a possibility." Pepper sighed. "But harder because he's a minor."

"Option D?" He asked.

Pepper just stared at him.

"That's it?" His eyes widened and he shook his head. "Those are the only three options you could think of?"

Pepper sighed again and dropped her head, rubbing her eyebrows with her thumb and pointer finger. "If you have any other bright ideas I'm all ears."

Tony rapped his fingers on his desk as he considered it. "What if we do nothing?"

"Do…nothing?" Pepper echoed as if she couldn't comprehend it.

"Yeah, just no comment." He said, slicing his hand through the air horizontally. "That kind of thing."

"You're serious." Pepper stared at him as if he'd suggested murdering the president.

"Yeah why not?"

Pepper closed her eyes and shook her head with a look of frustration Tony was all too familiar with.

"Why not?" She repeated. "Because that'd be the worst possible thing we could do. It'd add so much fuel to the media fire frenzy. They'd know they were onto something and they wouldn't stop until they figured it out. Is that really what you want?"

That was…probably true. But on the other hand…

"We've both seen the picture. I can barely tell it's Peter and I know it was him. How is Joe Schmo off the street going to figure it out? You're right. The media buzz will probably get worse before it gets better, but eventually it'll fizzle out when they can't figure it out. Because they won't find anything." He said certainly.

Pepper pursed her lips, but he could tell she was at least considering it.

"I don't want to do anything that outs Peter's identity to the media. That seems like a bad idea for a number of reasons, even if we lie and say he's my intern or a family friend or whatever. People will still know who he is and that he's close to me. That's one thing the picture makes obvious enough. And we both know what happens to people close to me. They get a target painted on their backs."

Pepper's eyes softened and he looked away so he wouldn't have to hold her gaze anymore. They both knew he was talking about her.

"Tony." Pepper said sadly as she reached out and rested a hand on his shoulder.

He shook his head and glanced up at her. "I've got enough to worry about when it comes to the kid without adding that to the mix."

"At least he's Spiderman." Pepper offered, trying to reassure him. "He can take of himself."

Tony scoffed. "He shouldn't have to. That's my job."

Pepper squeezed his shoulder. "So you want to say nothing."

Tony nodded. "I want to say nothing."

"Melanie's going to love that." Pepper said, her smile in direct opposition to the thick sarcasm coming from her mouth.

"That's why she gets paid the big bucks. Hey, if she gives you too much grief you can always remind her how much tamer I've grown in my old age. I haven't had a good scandal in ages."

Pepper rolled her eyes. "I'll be sure to remind her."

Tony smiled and Pepper started walking out, presumably to go talk to Melanie.

"Hey Pep." He called after her.

She paused and turned toward him.

"We say nothing for now, but if by some completely unlikely chance they figure out who Peter is, we will have to make a statement."

"I know." The smile Pepper gave him was sad. Neither of them wanted that to happen. "But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. And hopefully we won't need to."

"Hopefully." Tony agreed quietly. For as confident as he'd been about no one being able to figure out Peter's identity, he sure had a terrible sinking sensation that it was only a matter of time. Like a ticking bomb. The interest was out there. People would probably find out sooner or later, but he really hoped it'd be later. Like when the kid was already in college or even later. He wanted Peter to be able to be a kid for as long as he could without the added pressure of growing up with the media watching his every move. Because that was what would happen as soon as the world figured out Tony Stark had adopted a son. Everyone would go crazy. And Peter would have to kiss his privacy good-bye. And Peter was such a private person. He'd hate it. It was a disaster waiting to happen.

Tony hung his head in his hands and swore.

* * *

A/N: Sorry for the wait! Life has been crazy and now with everything that's going on it's probably only going to get crazier (I work in healthcare) so I can't make any promises about when the next update will be up, so I hope you enjoy this one! Try to stay safe and healthy everyone!


	4. Chapter 4

A knock sounded on Peter's bedroom door just as he finished the last equation of the problem set in front of him.

"Kid, can I come in?" Tony's voice came from the other side of the door.

"Sure." He answered.

His dad walked in, a tense expression on his face. He wondered if it was from the same thing that'd put a similar look on Pepper's face.

"Doing your math homework?" Tony asked when he got close enough to see the open textbook and the sheet of paper with the completed problem set to the side of it.

Peter nodded. "I just finished it."

Tony ruffled his hair. "Want me to check your answers?"

"No I got it." Peter said, trying to fix his mussed up curls.

His dad watched him fondly for a moment, amusement warring with worry on his face.

Peter frowned. "Is everything ok?"

"Everything's fine," Tony answered quickly, "but there's something I need to talk to you about."

Peter's heart leaped to his throat. Had Tony figured out Peter's plan to change his name? Was he unhappy about it? But how had he found out? Pepper wouldn't have told. Had someone else? Or was it just his dad's uncanny ability to somehow know everything that happened in his Tower? Maybe FRIDAY had squealed?

"Um what-what's up?" He asked, trying not to sound as nervous as he felt.

His dad sighed, sliding his homework off to the side so there was a clear spot on his desk where he could sit down.

"Watch any TV recently?" Tony asked.

Peter blinked. That was not at all what he'd been expecting.

"Um I watched a few episodes of Love it or List it last night."

"I thought I told you that show would rot your brain."

"I like it."

Tony shook his head with a sigh, but Peter could tell he didn't actually care.

"What about today? Did you watch anything today?"

"No. Why? Did something happen?" Had some sort of world catastrophe occurred that he was unaware of?

"Yes…and no." Tony answered.

"Wow that's cryptic." Peter joked, trying to lighten the solemn mood that'd fallen over his room. "Are you actually going to tell me or am I supposed to guess?"

Tony took a deep breath as if to bolster himself before he answered, "Someone leaked a photo."

"Ok…" That answer was just as vague.

"A photo of us."

Peter's mouth fell open as he tried to absorb the words and what they meant. "What? But who would—? When did—?" He could only get out clipped, incomplete fragments, but his dad seemed to understand all the same.

"Some government aide leaked the photo of us together on the couch after the Accords signing. The press is having a heyday with it." Tony answered.

Peter winced. Oh. That was bad.

Tony continued, "It's playing on all the major network stations. Everyone wants to know who you are and what your connection is to me."

Peter frowned, staring blankly at his math homework for a moment as he tried to process the news.

"What-what does this mean?" He asked, looking up to meet Tony's worried eyes.

Tony licked his lips and answered slowly, "It means…we're going to have to be a lot more careful in the future to not be seen together."

"But why? If they already know who I am?" Peter didn't really understand. Why did they need to be careful if the cat was already out of the bag?

"No. They don't know." His dad shook his head. "The photo isn't very good quality. I can barely tell it's you. They just know I was sitting with some kid."

Peter scrunched his nose, not really loving that description. "So what are we going to do about it?"

"Nothing. We're going to do nothing and let it run its course and eventually it'll die down. We're not telling anyone who you are or what your relationship with me is. But like I said, we're going to have to be careful. We can't go out in public together for the time being. One _good_ photo and they might be able to figure out who you are."

"And that would be bad." He said, but it came out more as a question.

Tony frowned as he answered, "Yes Peter, that would be bad. If the press found out you were my son, they'd hound you nonstop, and it wouldn't be for only a couple weeks. It'd be forever. The unfortunate curse of being a Stark."

Peter swallowed hard, thinking of the paperwork he'd just signed to officially make himself a Stark.

"And that wouldn't even be the worst part." Tony explained, looking stricken. "Certain people might see you as a tool they could use to try to get to me. You'd never be safe, and I don't want that for you."

"They could try," Peter smiled, trying to reassure his dad, "but I'm Spiderman. I'm not so easy to get to."

"Don't underestimate the crazies." Tony shook his head. "It's not a risk I'm willing to take."

"So, if we're not going to do anything about it, then why are you telling me?" He asked.

"Because I want you in the loop. In case things come up or go wrong, I want you to know how serious it could be."

"Ok. I guess that makes sense." Peter's brow furrowed as another thought struck him. "Wait. Is this the emergency Pepper got called back to deal with?"

Tony nodded.

Peter immediately felt guilty. Because of him, because of something to do with him, Pepper had needed to run back to work to deal with the fallout.

Tony must've seen the guilt on his face. "Don't worry kid. Compared to some of the things I've put her through, this is nothing. And the game plan's simple. We're doing nothing. We're not confirming or denying anything or making a statement. It's literally no extra work for Pep."

"I don't know." Peter mumbled. "She looked pretty stressed."

Tony waved a hand in dismissal. "She'll be fine. Believe me. The woman's as tough as nails."

That got a smile out of him. "I know."

"Good." His dad ruffled his hair again and he groaned in fake complaint. "You're done with your homework, right?"

"Yeah." It wasn't exactly a lie. He'd done the problem set he'd been working on, but he still had a mountain load to do by the end of winter break.

"What do you say we go down to the workshop and work on the new updates to my suit?"

"I'm in." He stood, always eager to work on the Ironman armor.

Tony got off the desk and wrapped an arm around his shoulders as they walked out of his room and to the workshop together. It should've been comforting but Peter still didn't feel completely at ease. Even though Tony had tried to reassure him, he couldn't shake the troubled look on his dad's face from his mind.

* * *

"Hey Ned." Peter answered his phone as he laid on his mattress. Tony had sent him to bed an hour ago but he still hadn't been able to fall asleep. The phone call was a welcome interruption from staring at the ceiling.

"Dude you're on TV! You're famous!" Ned erupted in excitement.

Peter groaned and rubbed his eyes.

"Have you seen the news? Like literally everyone is talking about you. I'm friends with a celebrity!"

"I haven't seen it yet but I've heard." Peter sighed. "And no one can know it's me Ned. You have to keep it to yourself. You can't even tell your parents, got it?"

"Oh man." Ned whined. "Are you serious?"

"Yes. I mean it." Peter reiterated. "Tony will flip if someone finds out that I'm the one in the picture."

"You don't think someone's going to figure it out?"

"I don't know. Tony didn't seem to think so. I guess it's not that great of a picture."

Ned hummed. "Yeah it is pretty blurry. I might not have even known it was you except I knew it was you."

Peter snorted.

"That sucks though dude. I thought I was going to be famous by proxy." Ned said with disappointment.

Peter grinned. "I don't think it works that way."

"I already had an awesome tag line idea for my twitter."

"Uh huh."

"Do you want to hear it?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"It was going to be, 'Best friend of Ironkid. Friend of the Avengers.' What do you think?"

"I think maybe keep working on it." Peter laughed. "And my name wouldn't be Ironkid."

"Are you kidding? The media's not all that creative. If they found out you were Ironman's kid I'm pretty sure they'd dub you Ironkid."

Peter made a face in disgust. "Oh god I hope not. That's reason enough to make sure they don't find out."

Ned laughed over the phone.

"So I guess for now I have to stick with secretly being Spiderman's guy in the chair?"

"And Peter Parker's best friend. Sorry."

"It's all right. I like that role better anyway." Peter could hear Ned's honest smile in his voice. "Besides, we both know I probably do better work behind the scenes than out in the spotlight."

"Yeah and it might sound fun at first, but it would totally suck to not be able to go anywhere without being recognized."

"Yeah you're right. Although, I bet we could get some sweet Comic-Con tickets if people knew who you were."

"Tony can get those for us anyway." Peter rolled his eyes. "And if no one knows who I am, we can go and not get mobbed, and actually have fun."

"I guess you have a point." Ned agreed.

Peter heard muffled voices coming from across the speaker of Ned's phone.

"Um sorry dude but my mom says I have to go to bed." Ned said. "I'll call you tomorrow."

"Ok. Good night Ned." Peter said with a smile.

"Good night."

Peter plugged his phone back into the charger and set it on the nightstand. Fatigue leadened his eyelids, and he closed his eyes as he settled into his soft pillows. Talking to Ned had at least helped him finally destress. Sleep was no longer so hard to find.

* * *

"_How does that feel?" Ross sneered at him as he stabbed a knife straight into his thigh._

_Peter couldn't hold back a cry of pain. He instinctively tried to grab the offending object but he couldn't move his arms. They were tied behind him as he sat helpless in a chair. _

"_Hurts, doesn't it?" Ross said with grim pleasure as he slowly twisted the knife._

_It burned. Electric shocks of agony danced through his leg._

"_Stop." He moaned and crumpled forward at his waist, but he only had enough slack to make it a few inches._

_Ross snorted in amusement._

"_You want me to stop? Oh no. We're just getting started." Ross said and ripped the knife out of his leg. It hurt almost as much as getting stabbed in the first place and Peter cried out again. He panted as blood bubbled from the wound, too much too fast._

_Ross leaned forward and placed the edge of the blood coated knife on his bare chest._

"_No." He pleaded. "Please."_

_The corner of Ross's lip twisted up in a crazed smile and he pressed down._

_Peter watched as blood flowed out and around the knife as it carved into his skin._

"_No!" He tried to thrash away but he couldn't as Ross trailed the knife across his chest to form a burning line of red._

_Peter couldn't help it. He was crying now. It hurt. And there was so much blood dripping down his chest and out of his leg. He was going to die. Oh god. Ross wasn't going to stop. He was going to keep going until he slowly killed him. _

_The man placed the knife a couple inches below the line of open skin and repeated the process, forming another crimson line of open flesh. Peter didn't want to look but he couldn't help it. The cuts were deep enough he thought he could see flashes of white bone underneath._

"_Stop. Stop! Please." He begged through his sobs._

_Ross ignored him and continued the process, dragging the knife over his skin to make a third line._

_Peter screamed. He didn't want to die. He didn't._

"_Help! Someone please! Help!" He yelled hoarsely even though he knew it was hopeless. He was all alone with Ross._

"_No one's coming to save you." Ross taunted. "Not even Daddy."_

_Peter whimpered at that. He wanted his dad. Ross carved another slice across his front._

"_Dad!" He screamed this time, clenching his eyes shut at the pain. He knew it was pointless and that Ross was right. Tony wasn't coming to save him, but he couldn't help instinctively calling for him. "Dad! Help! Please. Dad!"_

_Ross gripped his shoulders and gave them a firm shake. Why had Ross stopped hurting him? Peter's eyes snapped open in confusion._

Instead of Ross, all he saw was a darkened figure leaning over him, holding his shoulders.

"You're all right." The figure soothed. Not Ross. Peter blinked and immediately recognized his dad. He took in the rest of his surroundings. He was in his room. In bed. He spread a hand across his chest but there was nothing there. His leg was fine too. Nothing hurt. It'd all just been a bad dream. Ross didn't have him anymore. Right. Tony had saved him. And Ross was dead.

Tony sat perched on the edge of the bed and Peter wasted no time in sitting up and wrapping his arms around the man.

"You're all right." His dad repeated softly into his hair.

Peter closed his eyes and melted into the comfort.

"I'm sorry." He mumbled. He had no idea what time it was, but Tony was wearing pajamas so Peter knew he'd woken him up.

His dad shushed him and rubbed a hand over his back.

After a long minute of silent comfort, Tony said, "You were calling for me."

Peter knew it was a question as much as a statement. His dad was offering him a chance to talk about his dream but he wasn't going to force it.

"I was back there." Peter whispered into Tony's chest. "Ross had me."

Tony made a sound of displeasure but Peter continued, "He was hurting me and he wouldn't stop and I couldn't get free and no one was coming to save me and I just wanted you."

"I'm right here." Tony said, squeezing him even tighter. "You're safe."

"It felt so real." Peter mumbled.

"It wasn't." Tony tangled a hand in the hair at the back of his head. "You're not there. And Ross is gone. He'll never hurt you again."

"I know. It's stupid. I'm sorry."

"It's not stupid." Tony said firmly. "What you went through was traumatic. Someone took you, held you hostage, and hurt you. I'd be surprised if you weren't having nightmares about it. Hell, I'm having nightmares about it."

"You are?" Peter pulled back and saw the truth in his dad's eyes.

"Yeah." Tony tried to smile as he palmed his cheek, but he just looked sad. "Of course. Someone took you from me and hurt you as a way to get to me. That's the very definition of my worst nightmare."

"Really?"

"Yes. Really." Tony rubbed a thumb over his cheek. "You're the most important thing to me. How many times do I have to tell you that before you finally start to believe me?"

"Lots." Peter said and grinned. "Maybe because I like to hear it."

Tony let out a short huff of amusement and dropped the hand on his face so he could ruffle his hair. "You seem better."

"Yeah." He agreed. He did feel better. With his dad so close, the fear from his nightmare seemed miles away now instead of lurking in the room. "Thanks."

"Think you'll be able to get back to sleep?" Tony asked. "It's still pretty late."

"I think so." He said even though he wasn't sure. The yawn that escaped him a couple seconds later seemed to contradict his doubts.

Tony nodded and stood, fluffing his pillow for him and then gently guiding him backward to land on it. Once he was settled, his dad pulled the covers up to his chin and brushed the hair off his forehead before lightly pressing a kiss there.

"Get some sleep." His dad whispered.

Peter hummed in response, eyes already drifting closed. He expected to hear the door click shut as Tony walked out, but instead, a few moments later, he felt the other side of his bed tip. Peter cracked his eyes open and watched with a frown as his dad crawled into the other side of it.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Shh go to sleep." Tony said, reaching a hand across the space between them to place it briefly over his eyes to close them. "I'm keeping the nightmares away."

"Mine or yours?" Peter joked.

Tony chuckled. "Both."

"Night dad."

"Good night kiddo."

"I love you." He mumbled as sleep pulled irresistibly at him.

"I love you too." His dad said back and Peter could hear all the fondness and love infused in the sentence. "Now go to sleep."

Peter hummed tiredly in agreement. With his dad next to him, a sense of safety encompassed him, and he had no trouble slipping quickly back to sleep.

* * *

A/N: Thanks for all the wonderful comments! They really help make me put in the effot to write even when it's the last thing I feel like doing right now with the stress of everything going on. Hopefully this chapter can act as a form of temporary escapism... Stay safe! Wear masks!


	5. Chapter 5

"Hey rugrat, what have you been up to?" Clint asked as Peter walked into the common room.

"Homework." He answered and jumped over the back of the couch, landing with his back on the cushions and jostling Clint. "My brain is dead." He complained, not caring if he was being melodramatic. He'd spent all morning and afternoon working on it, and he still had a lot left to do. Missing almost two weeks of school was something he definitely planned to avoid in the future.

"Rough, huh?" Clint asked with a half grin.

"That's an understatement."

"You'll survive." Clint patted his shin.

"Yeah I guess." He sighed. "I just want to be done with it so I can actually start to enjoy my winter break."

Clint nodded in understanding before gesturing toward his right thigh. "How's the leg?"

"Fine." He shrugged. "Pretty much back to normal."

"Good. That's quite the healing factor you have. If that had happened to me, I would've been laid up for weeks."

"Yeah. It definitely has its uses. Although personally, I like it better when I don't need it at all."

"I'm sure everyone feels that way." Clint nodded. "But we're all just happy you're ok now kid."

"Me too." Peter tried to smile, but he didn't know how well he succeeded. The whole event with Ross had been nothing short of terrifying and thinking about it still left a stale taste in his mouth.

"Hey, and don't worry about this media thing. Your dad's got it covered and we've all got your back, you know."

"I know." He nodded. Maybe he should be more worried than he was about his picture being splashed across all the news channels, but he had too many other things on his mind. He didn't have the mental space to start worrying about something that hadn't caused an actual problem yet. He figured he'd deal with it if it became an issue, but hopefully it wouldn't.

"Hey it's the squirt." Sam announced as he walked out of the elevator and into the room along with Steve, Nat, and Rhodey. They all had their sweat laden workout gear on.

"Hey guys." He greeted them with a lazy wave.

"You two hungry?" Steve asked, making his way toward the kitchen.

"You know me, I could always eat." Clint replied.

"Me too." Peter agreed.

"I'm starving." Sam said dramatically as he fell backward into one of the armchairs.

"Ditto." Rhodey said, sitting on the other empty couch. Nat hummed in agreement before she slumped down next to him.

"Whatever happened to the no coming in the common room without showering first rule?" Clint complained.

"That sounds like a made up rule." Nat said tiredly.

"Didn't you hear us? We're starving." Sam reiterated as if that explained everything.

"You guys reek." Clint shook his head.

Nat flipped him off.

"We do not." Sam sniffed one of his arm pits. "I smell great."

Rhodey shook his head and turned the TV on.

"What's for dinner Cap?" Sam asked as Steve walked over.

"Well since it looks like there's no food in the kitchen, I ordered some pizzas." Steve answered, sitting in the other empty armchair.

"Mmm, pizza sounds great." Rhodey said. He stopped channel surfing and settled on a news station.

"What do you mean there's no food?" Clint asked.

"Exactly what I said. The cupboards are bare."

"Sounds like Stark's been slacking." Sam snorted.

"Can you blame him?" Nat quirked a judgmental eyebrow at him.

Peter pretended to be engrossed in the TV so he could ignore the not so subtle looks they all turned toward him.

"I'm sure FRIDAY can handle it." Clint waved a hand dismissively then directed his eyes to the ceiling. "Right FRIDAY?"

"Indeed. I will order the usual shipment to restock the kitchen right away, Katniss."

"FRIDAY." Clint groaned in complaint as everyone else grinned or chuckled in amusement. One of Tony's favorite things to do was to program FRIDAY to call his teammates by their many nicknames.

"…_and in other news, no progress has been made in identifying the boy next to Tony Stark in the photo that has been displayed by media outlets across the world."_

Peter's attention snapped to the television as the two newscasters on the screen discussed him. Well, the picture of him. The photo popped up in the upper right hand corner of the screen. It was really weird seeing a picture of himself on television even when no one else recognized it as him.

"Maybe we should turn this off." Steve suggested but Peter shook his head when Rhodey made a move toward the remote.

"No. I want to hear what they're saying." He said softly. He'd been avoiding it, but he figured it'd be stupid to try to avoid it forever, and there was no time like the present.

"_Tony Stark has remained conspicuously silent on the matter." The male newscaster said._

"_And if that's not telling, I don't know what is." The female newscaster agreed. "This is the man that couldn't keep his identity secret as Ironman for more than a day, but this he makes no remark about?"_

"_And not just him, but Stark Industries and the Avengers are all keeping quiet. There's definitely a story to be had here. The only question is who is going to figure it out first." The man smiled._

Peter scrunched his face up at that.

"_And although there's still no official word from any of the staff involved in the signing of the Accords amendments, our sources say that the government aide responsible for the leaked photo has been fired." The woman added._

"_Well that's certainly not surprising," The man said as he nodded and straightened the stack of papers in front of him, "especially if you consider—"_

"FRIDAY off." Tony's voice interrupted whatever the man had been about to say.

Peter craned his head back over the armrest to see his dad standing there with his arms crossed across his chest.

"Why are we watching this crap?" Tony nodded toward the now blank TV screen. "There's really nothing more interesting on?"

Guilty silence met his question.

"It's not their fault. I wanted to watch it." Peter spoke up. He didn't want anyone getting in trouble because of him. "I should know what they're saying about me."

"They're not saying anything about _you_." Tony argued, and Peter swallowed hard when his dad turned his displeased expression on him. "Because they don't know it's you. They're speculating on some as of yet unnamed person. And that's how it's going to stay until they eventually lose interest and then all this will die out."

No one argued with him.

"Got it?"

Peter nodded.

"Trust me. It's all going to be fine." Tony said, voice softening as his hand landed in Peter's hair.

"Ok." Peter gave him a small smile.

"Ok good." Tony rounded the couch and gently picked up Peter's feet to make space so he could sit on the couch before settling them back in his lap. "So, now that that's settled, maybe we can watch something of actual substance?"

Rhodey turned the TV back on, but was quick to change the channel, searching for something better.

After a few long seconds of awkward silence, Clint asked with a smirk, "So you got the aide fired huh?"

"Of course." Tony answered as if it was obvious.

Peter protested in surprise, "Wait. _You_ got them fired?"

"Don't worry about it kid." Tony patted his knee.

"But—"

"What they did was illegal. They're lucky all I did was take their job away. I could've done a lot worse. I wanted to, actually, but Pepper talked me out of it." Tony said more darkly.

"Better be careful Stark. For all you know, all they need is this grudge against you to turn into an evil supervillain intent on revenge." Nat joked, lightening the mood.

Tony snorted. "That is kind of my MO, huh?"

"I wouldn't be proud of that." Nat said dryly.

"Hey, maybe it's a good thing. I eventually have to run out of enemies, right?"

"Not at the rate you make them." Rhodey chimed in.

"Hmm. That may be true."

"Definitely true." Clint nodded. "I'm one more stupid nickname from FRIDAY away from taking you out myself."

That made everyone laugh and even Peter quirked a smile. He still felt bad that someone had lost their job over him, but if releasing that picture had been illegal then it had probably been deserved. He figured he could live with that.

Tony had been right. A couple weeks passed and the media buzz finally started to die down as they came no closer to figuring out that he was the kid in the picture. Everyone around the Tower started to act a little less uptight, which Peter figured could also be because of the holiday season, and not just his picture's fading notoriety, but either way, it was nice.

Tony went all out and literally decked the halls with the rest of the team's help. Peter had never seen so many Christmas decorations. He and May usually decorated a tree and put some baubles up around the house but that was the extent of it. Tony took it to a whole another level.

He'd bought a ten foot tree and the whole team had spent one morning decking it out in an assortment of ornaments while they listened to Christmas music and drank hot chocolate with candy canes. The kicker was the addition of everyone's specially made superhero ornament, including Peter's Spiderman. But the tree wasn't all. Garland, poinsettias, lights, and Christmas themed decorations adorned every available surface. It looked like an elf had thrown up in the room, and more often than not, Tony walked around with a Santa hat perched crookedly on his head. Peter loved Christmas, but it was almost too much even for him.

Peter didn't know if this was the usual for Tony or if he was doing it special for him, for their first Christmas together. The offhanded comments Pepper and Rhodey had made along with some of the other Avengers made Peter suspect it was the latter, and he appreciated it, but he also couldn't help the melancholy that sometimes threatened to overtake him as he prepared to celebrate his first Christmas without May. Tony seemed to sense it every time he started to feel particularly down because he'd show up out of nowhere and pull him into some festive activity.

So far, he'd gone ice skating at a rink Tony had rented out for the afternoon to keep it free from bystanders, he'd made a gingerbread house, he'd gone upstate to go sledding, and he'd decorated Christmas cookies, the activity he was currently attempting. He and May had never really done the Christmas cookie thing since most of her cookie baking attempts ended up blackened. The store bought kind had been a Christmas staple in their house ever since Peter could remember.

But Peter had to admit, Steve's homemade cookies tasted way better.

"You're supposed to decorate them, not eat them." Tony said as Peter munched on his only partially iced gingerbread cookie.

"I can't help it. They're too good." He said through a mouthful of crumbs.

Tony shook his head in mock exasperation. "Well hopefully Cap doesn't mind making more or all his hard work is going to be gone by the end of the night."

"I don't mind." Steve said from the other side of the kitchen where he was rolling out more dough to cut with the cookie cutters.

"I've only had like two." Peter rolled his eyes.

"I counted at least three." Bruce piped in but didn't take his concentration away from frosting the snowflake cookie in front of him.

"Five." Nat said with a quirk of her lip while she sprinkled green and red crystal sprinkles over her tree cookie.

"No way I've had that many." Peter protested. "You must be losing your touch."

Nat sent a fake glare his way and Peter tried to act appropriately cowed in the face of the Black Widow's displeasure. It didn't work so well. He broke into a grin instead.

"I also counted five." Vision added from where he decorated his cookie, which looked more like something out of MOMA than a Christmas cookie. He and Wanda had returned the night before, from wherever they'd been, to celebrate the holiday with the team while Clint and Scott had left a couple days earlier to spend Christmas with their families.

"Whose side are you on?" Peter asked with feigned betrayal as Tony cackled beside him.

"I was not aware there were sides." Vision cocked his head sideways.

"There aren't." Wanda answered as she laughed softly next to Vision. "It's a joke."

"Oh. I see." Vision nodded and went back to his cookie.

Peter reached to grab another fresh cookie, a sugar cookie this time, in the shape of a candy cane, but Tony lightly swatted the back of his hand.

"Nuh uh. No more cookies for you."

"I'm going to decorate it, not eat it."

Tony shot him a flat look of disbelief. "You said that last time. And the time before that."

"Well this time I mean it."

"Fine, but if you eat this one, you're cut off for good."

"Way to stick to your guns Stark." Sam snorted over his snowman cookie.

Tony flipped him off without looking up from frosting his own cookie, but he didn't stop Peter from grabbing the candy cane cookie.

As good as it looked, and as tempted as he was to eat it, Peter resisted and started frosting it instead, going for red and blue stripes instead of the classic red and white.

"Are spiders colorblind?" Rhodey poked fun at his miscolored candy cane cookie as he finished sprinkling his own bell shaped one with silver sprinkle balls.

"No." Peter said and checked to make sure the frosting had hardened enough before he leaned over to start piping white frosting in a thin and delicate rendition of his spider webs over the blue and red.

"Because last I checked candy canes are red and white."

"Hmm." He said, distracted as he concentrated on finishing one of the webs and then starting on another. "It's my theme cookie."

"Your what?"

"My theme cookie." He explained as he finished the webbing overlays and leaned back. "See? Spiderman candy cane."

"Nice." Rhodey nodded and raised his eyebrows, clearly impressed.

"That looks good kid." Tony smiled, clapping him on the back.

"Damn. Why didn't we think of that?" Sam asked.

"Yeah and what would your theme even be?" Rhodey asked. "A bird? What are you going to do, put one in a tree?"

Sam glared at him.

"If he made it look like a pear tree he could put a partridge in it." Peter joked.

Everyone laughed.

"Not a bad idea kid, but it'd have to be a falcon, not a partridge." Sam argued.

Peter shrugged and grabbed another cookie to decorate. "Semantics."

"Two turtle doves might be cuter." Wanda offered with a smirk. "One could be Falcon and the other Hawkeye."

That got even more laughs.

"Ok. That's enough of making fun of the bird themed superheroes." Sam said. "Especially when Clint's not even here to defend himself. Besides, pipsqueak here is the only one who's identity can even be turned into a cookie."

"What are you talking about? I just did it." Nat smugly held up the cookie she'd just finished, an ornament shaped one, decorated black with her red Black Widow logo embossed in frosting on it.

"Nice." Peter grinned. It looked awesome. "The spiders for the win." He reached across the counter and high fived her.

"Where did you even get black frosting?" Sam asked, looking around the countertop and not seeing any.

Nat just smiled.

"I don't know. I think I like this one better." Tony said and held his own cookie up. A snowman with red and yellow Ironman armor on and a blue arc reactor in the center of its chest.

"That looks awesome." Peter said, impressed. He didn't know Tony could draw like that, even if it was only with frosting. When he thought about it, though, he didn't know why he was surprised. Creating and engineering probably required a lot of skill in drawing.

"I know. Don't eat it." Tony pointed a finger at him in warning as he set it back down on the counter to finish drying.

"No, this one's definitely the best." Bruce said, holding up a gingerbread cookie he'd frosted completely green with purple shorts.

"Nice." Peter nodded.

"Looks good." Tony agreed.

"How does this look?" Vision asked, holding up his own, an elaborately decorated tree cookie with two birds in it, one adorned in red and black with large wings and the other in black and purple with a bow across its back.

"That's amazing Viz." Wanda nodded.

"Yeah." Rhodey agreed. "See Sam? You get your cookie after all."

"Ok but seriously, where the hell is all the black frosting coming from?" Sam asked, scanning the counter top again.

Peter couldn't help it. He burst out laughing and everyone joined in.

The theme cookie decorating turned into a thing. An ornament decorated to look like Captain America's shield was next. A snowman in the War Machine armor followed. Then Vision made a gingerbread man cookie with the mind stone affixed to its forehead and Wanda made one with red in its palms and eyes.

Peter had to admit, it was a great way to spend the afternoon of Christmas Eve. The easy camaraderie and happiness of the season was infectious. There was no way he could stay sad even if he'd wanted to.

"You good?" Tony leaned in and asked when he'd been uncharacteristically quiet for a few minutes.

"Yeah. I was just thinking."

"Uh-huh. About what?"

Peter smiled at the man that had become his dad as he answered, "May would've loved this."

"Yeah?" Tony gave him a soft smile in return.

"Definitely."

Tony wrapped an arm around his shoulders and tugged him in for a sideways hug. "I think you're right. And I have to say, this has been one of my favorite Christmases so far."

"Really?"

Tony nodded.

"Why?"

"Because I get to spend it with you."

Peter's eyes were twinkling as he smiled up at his dad.

"And I know it's probably tough for you, but I hope you're having at least a little fun."

"I am. You've been trying really hard."

"I have." Tony admitted. "Is it working?"

"Yeah. It's working."

"Good."

Tony ruffled his hair and they went back to cookie decorating. And eating.

A part of Peter's heart still constantly ached from the emptiness of May's absence, but a larger part was filled with happiness and the joy of the season that Tony's efforts had inevitably brought.

He knew May wouldn't begrudge him his holiday cheer. Just like he knew she wouldn't mind him changing his name. He wondered again if the whole Ross kidnapping him and almost dying thing had been worth it in the end just to know that his family loved him and only wanted the best for him. For him to be happy.

A wet tap on his nose snapped his attention back to the present.

"Smile Rudolph." Nat grinned as he touched the tip of his nose where she'd smeared a glob of red frosting.

Peter gaped for only a split second before retaliating by flinging a handful of his white frosting at her. She tried to duck but still ended up getting it on her cheek and in her hair.

"Oh, now you started it." Nat warned.

"No, you did." Peter countered.

"No! Don't even think about it!" Tony warned holding his hands up between them, but Nat was already dipping her hand into the red frosting bowl next to her.

"Guys let's not—" Steve tried to reason with them. He was cut off as Nat splattered Tony and Peter with a fistful of red frosting.

"—do this." Steve sighed.

Peter laughed at Steve's resignation and his dad's face covered in frosting.

"You're dead Romanov." Tony threatened, and then it was an all out frosting food fight.

As Peter ducked down beneath the counter to avoid getting splattered, he had to admit that the Avengers sure knew how to liven up the season.

Annnnd have a little fluff to ring in the fall. I can't believe it took this long for me to update. Sorry! Although I did have a baby (she's three and a half months old now) so I'm going to use that as my excuse. Updates might take a little longer because my free time has become pretty much nonexistent along with my sleep. :-)


	6. Chapter 6

"Merry Christmas!" Tony said the second Peter walked into the kitchen, still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. The delicious smell emanating from the kitchen had woken him up and eventually enticed him to leave the sleepy comfort of his warm bed.

"Merry Christmas." He said back with a smile. His dad's joy was infectious. He plopped down on one of the kitchen stools and watched as Tony finished making pancakes.

"How'd you sleep?" Tony glanced over at him and smirked at his impressive bed head.

"Good." He shrugged. He'd had another nightmare about Ross, but it hadn't been terrible, and he'd been able to fall asleep right afterward, so he didn't think Tony needed to know about it. He didn't want to risk upsetting him on Christmas.

Tony flipped the pancake off the pan and piled it on top of five others already stacked on a plate. Before pouring the batter for the next pancake, he placed the plate in front of Peter, along with the maple syrup. "Here. Breakfast is served."

"Festive." Peter commented with a smile. The pancakes had green and red sprinkles intermixed in the batter.

"Tis the season." Tony said and turned back to the stove.

Peter shook his head in amusement and couldn't help but ask through a mouthful of pancake, "So once Christmas is over are you going to stop wearing that god awful hat or are you planning on dressing as Santa full time?"

The corner of Tony's mouth turned up as he patted the Santa hat perched on top of his head as if he'd forgotten it was there. "What? This thing? I suppose it'll have to go back into retirement until next Christmas. I don't think I have the gut or the facial hair to pull off the Saint Nick thing."

"Hmm." Peter cocked his head to the side and eyed his dad up and down as if considering it.

"Not funny." Tony waved the batter covered spatula at him and went back to his pancakes. "Keep it up and just see if you get any presents from Santa."

Peter twisted in his stool to glance into the living room. "Huh. Looks like he already came and left all the presents."

Bright, holiday themed packages overflowed under the tree. Peter really hoped they weren't all for him. If they were, it was way too much.

"Yeah well Santa giveth so Santa can taketh away." Tony joked and flipped the pancake in front of him.

Peter had purchased only a couple of presents that were under the tree. The big one he'd gotten for his dad wasn't there yet. The papers declaring his new name, that Pepper had handed to him a few days ago, still sat wrapped in shiny red paper tied in gold ribbon underneath his bed.

"Those aren't all for me, are they?" He asked after he swallowed his next bite, the plate of pancakes in front of him almost half gone already.

"You'll have to see." Tony answered cryptically with a smug smile.

He shook his head. "That's too much."

"Hey if I want to spoil my kid that's my prerogative. And since this is our first Christmas together, I had a lot of Christmases I missed that I had to make up for."

"So you went overboard." Peter sighed in resignation.

"Maybe just a little." Tony turned the stove off and took his plate with a measly two pancakes over to the stool next to Peter, ruffling his hair as he walked by. "But don't worry. They're not _all_ for you. Some of them are for the team."

"Good."

"But most of them are for you."

Peter groaned.

Tony went back to eating his pancakes with a self satisfied smirk.

Peter knew arguing about the presents would be pointless, so he didn't even try. "So, what's the plan for today?" He asked instead.

Tony finished the bite of pancake in his mouth and answered, "Well first, I thought we'd have this amazing breakfast I slaved over."

Peter snorted.

"And then we can open some presents." Tony grinned. "Everyone wants to do a big Christmas dinner thing tonight, but until then, we have the day to ourselves to do whatever you want. I probably should've asked you this earlier, but did you and May have any traditions you want to celebrate?"

"Like what?" He asked, curious instead of hurt by the mention of his aunt.

"Like, do I need to change into a suit and have FRIDAY find a church nearby for us to go to?" His dad asked jokingly but Peter could tell he meant it.

"Oh." He shook his head. "No. We didn't do anything like that."

"Ok." Tony gave him a nod but seemed to be waiting for him to say more.

"Um, usually we'd open most of our presents on Christmas Eve, but there were a few we'd open on Christmas morning. From Santa." He clarified. Even after he'd gotten old enough to know Santa wasn't real, May and Ben had refused to give up the tradition so Peter had started giving them small presents 'from Santa' as well, no matter how much they complained that he shouldn't.

Tony's face twisted. "Sorry kid. I should've asked about all this stuff earlier. We could've opened presents last night."

"No, it's fine." Peter reassured him. He didn't mind. He actually kind of liked that they were doing things a little differently. It made it easier. "Last night was fun. I've never made Christmas cookies before."

Tony still had a look on his face like he'd just eaten something sour, but he nodded. "Ok. What else do you usually do?"

"Oh. Well, after presents, we'd eat breakfast, and then we'd just sit around the apartment and watch Christmas movies all day." He shrugged. "And we'd eat cookies, store bought ones, and hot chocolate and stuff. Sometimes we'd play board games." His brow furrowed slightly as he just remembered that. "But we kind of did that more when Ben was around."

"Eating junk food and watching movies sounds like exactly the kind of thing I can do." Tony nodded and went back to eating his pancakes.

"I mean we don't have to do that." Peter said, pushing the last pieces of syrup doused pancake around on his plate.

"Ok. Do you want to do something else?"

"Like what?"

"I don't know." Tony gave him a one shoulder shrug and kept eating. "Whatever you want kiddo."

Peter pushed the pancake mush around some more and thought about it. There wasn't anything he could think of that he wanted to do.

"What did you use to do for Christmas?" He asked.

"Me?" Tony let out a dark chuckle. "Back before I had myself more together, you don't want to know. It wasn't exactly PG-13 friendly and it wasn't happy."

Peter's felt his cheeks heat. That wasn't what he'd meant. He was very aware of the escapades his dad used to get up to before he became Ironman and turned his life around.

"No that's not… I meant when you were a kid. Did your family have any traditions?" He tried not to shrink back from asking the question. Tony never talked about his parents, and Rhodey and a few of the others had made enough vague comments here and there for Peter to catch on to the fact that Tony hadn't had the most idyllic childhood.

"When I was a kid…" Tony mumbled to himself as he considered it. Peter thought he looked thoughtful instead of irritated, so the question didn't seem to have been a mistake. "When I was really young sometimes my mom's parents would visit since my dad didn't have any family left. But by the time I was ten or so they were both gone, so it'd either be just the three of us at home, or we'd jet off somewhere for a vacation. Mom liked to do that. If we were at home, though, we'd have breakfast and then my mom would drag us to the morning church service. She was Italian, and very Catholic." Tony paused to give him a smile.

"I didn't know that."

"Yeah. Dad and I hated going ,but we did it for her. She used to tell us we were lucky she wasn't making us go to midnight mass." Tony let out a short laugh. "I remember I hated having to dress up on a day that was supposed to be a holiday. And I was always starving because we didn't eat breakfast until we got back home. And then we'd open presents." Tony paused to take another bite of pancakes and he shook his head. "That's one thing I can say. There was never any shortage of presents."

Peter nodded. He could imagine.

"And then we'd usually go to the sitting room and Dad would read, and I'd mess with some new toy or gadget, and my mom would play the piano. Christmas music usually. And sometimes she'd make me play."

"You play the piano?" Peter asked, surprised.

"Yeah." Tony smiled, and it looked like he was trying not to laugh at him. "You didn't know that?"

"No." He frowned. "You don't even own a piano. Do you?" He glanced around the room as if it were possible his dad actually had a piano and he'd just never noticed it before.

Tony chuckled. "No, I don't anymore, but I used to. At the house in Malibu. It was a nice one."

Peter figured it was probably more than nice. Everything Tony owned was ungodly expensive, and Peter had heard of pianos that cost upwards of $50,000. Flash's dad had gotten one for his mom for some anniversary and Flash hadn't stopped bragging about it for a week.

Tony quirked his head to the side as if just remembering something. "But then I threw it at a helicopter."

"What?" He asked in surprise.

"And then the house got destroyed." Tony continued, patting syrup from his mouth with a napkin. "And I never replaced it." He finished with a shrug.

Peter blinked, trying to take all that in. He had to be talking about the attack the Mandarin had made on his house. Well, not actually the Mandarin, but the tech guy pretending to be the Mandarin. But that'd been a long time ago.

"Why not?" He asked. If he could play the piano, he couldn't imagine not having one around, especially if he were someone like Tony who had the space for it and could definitely afford it.

"I just never got around to it."

Peter's eyebrows pinched together. He sensed there might be something more to it than that but he didn't want to push.

"Ok… So, can we get a piano now?"

Tony blinked. "Do you play?"

"No. I always wanted to learn but it was too expensive. It'd be cool to listen to you, though."

His dad's expression softened and he gave his shoulder a squeeze. "I'll teach you."

"Oh no, you don't have to."

"I want to."

"Ok." He agreed quietly with a small smile.

"Then how about this? Next year you can play me some Christmas songs."

His smile widened. "I don't know if I'll be good enough by then."

"Sure you will."

"Ok but only if you play too."

A slight shadow seemed to cross his dad's face even as he smiled. "Deal."

"It can be our new tradition." Peter added, remembering how they got on the topic of the piano in the first place. "Along with Christmas sprinkle pancakes." He shoved the last soggy piece into his mouth. "Mmm."

"Good, huh?" Tony finished the remaining couple bites of his own stack.

"Delicious."

"So, presents and then movies on the couch?" Tony suggested as he took their plates to the dishwasher. "You sure there's nothing else you want to do?"

He thought about it again. He just wanted to spend time with his dad. His family. It was what Christmas was all about. May and Ben had drilled that into him when he'd been younger and as he'd gotten older he'd realized the truth of it on his own. Even though he'd lost so many people in his family, he still had a family. A group of people that might not be related to him, but genuinely cared about him just the same. And he had a dad that loved him. Not everyone had that at Christmas. He considered himself lucky.

"Wait. I know what I want to do." He said as the idea struck him.

"What?"

"Do you think we could go to some group homes and do a meet and greet with the kids? Maybe hand out some presents?"

"You and me?"

"Ironman and Spiderman." He clarified. He knew going out as Tony and Peter right now wouldn't work since they were supposed to be keeping their father son relationship secret.

Tony's brow furrowed as he considered it.

"I know it's really last minute, and I guess I don't even know where we'd get the presents…"

"That's not the problem."

"Ok. Um, what is?"

"If it's just you and me and somehow in the future the press finds out about us, it wouldn't take much for them to connect you to Spiderman, especially if they catch us out together on Christmas day."

"Oh. I didn't think of that." It kind of bothered him that he hadn't. Honestly, he hadn't been as worried about the whole press thing lately. It'd died down and he figured if they just keep being careful then no one would ever find out Tony had adopted him.

"Let me see if anyone else on the team wants to tag along." Tony suggested, pulling out his phone to shoot off some texts. "We can even pair off and go to different group homes, so it'll still be me and you, but this way it won't be as suspicious if anything ever comes up."

"That sounds good." Peter nodded.

Once Tony finished texting, he stared at him with a warm twinkle in his eyes.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"You're a good kid."

Peter shrugged and looked over his shoulder at the tree to cover his blush. He still wasn't good at taking compliments. "So…presents?" He asked with an eager smile.

"Presents." Tony agreed with a nod.

* * *

"This is too much." Peter said for what felt like the millionth time as he finished opening his last present. "You got me way too much stuff."

"I've never heard a kid complain so much about getting presents. Is this normal? I don't think it's normal. Do I need to have you checked out?"

Peter rolled his eyes.

"Do you like it?" Tony asked with a grin that'd been plastered to his face ever since Peter had started opening presents.

"I love it." Peter turned over the Star Wars Super Star Destroyer Lego box in his hands, examining the picture on the front. "But it's still too much."

Peter put it down and glanced over at the rest of his present haul, trying to keep his head from spinning. Sometimes he forgot his dad was a literal billionaire but this had reminded him. Tony had gotten him not one, but three, really expensive Lego sets along with the newest Playstation video game console that hadn't even been released on the market yet, some video games to go with it, more nice clothes than he knew what to do with, a pair of sunglasses that looked like they cost more than his entire wardrobe, and a brand new laptop.

"Just let me spoil you this time. I'll do better next year."

Peter snorted. "Yeah right."

He set the Lego box down by the others and stood from his spot on the floor to walk over to the couch to give his dad a hug. "Thank you."

"You're welcome kid."

"Sorry I didn't really get you much. You're really hard to buy for."

"I love everything you got me. Don't worry." Tony gave him a squeeze and patted his back.

"Um, actually I have one more present for you." Peter said, pulling away from the hug.

"Oh did I miss one?" Tony glanced back over at the tree.

"No. It's not under the tree. It's in my room. Let me go get it." He bounded off the couch to his room, excitement warring with nerves.

"A secret present you had to hide from me? Now I'm definitely intrigued." Tony called out after him.

Peter laughed even as his heart started to race, nerves winning out. It took no time at all to grab the gift adorned in red and gold from under his bed and bring it back out to the living room. He deposited it onto Tony's lap with little fanfare, just an insecure smile, before sitting down on the couch next to his dad.

"First of all, I love the wrap job. Why didn't you do all my presents in my color scheme?" Tony joked, clearly trying to lessen Peter's anxiety.

"Because they're not Christmas colors, and this one's not just a Christmas present. I mean it is…but it isn't." Peter tried not to trip over his words as he explained.

"Now I'm even more curious." Tony eyed the present in his lap.

"Open it."

Tony pulled the ribbon off, flipped the present over and slid a finger through the crease of wrapping paper taped together at the back. Peter swallowed hard as his dad removed the paper from the simple thin white box. Tony glanced up at him briefly before he lifted the lid off. He quirked his head in confusion at the sight of the stack of papers.

"This looks like something Pepper would give me for Christmas." He joked and then started pulling the papers out of the box. "What do we have here?"

"Um it's…" Peter trailed off as he took the papers and flipped them to the end part where it would be clearer to his dad, skipping over all the other wordy legalese. He handed the papers back and pointed. "Read this part."

Tony frowned but studied the papers in his hand as Peter studied him. He could tell the exact moment his dad realized what the papers meant. His eyebrows flew up and his mouth opened in shock as his head whipped over to look at him.

"Peter." Tony said and Peter didn't know if it was a good or a bad thing that he sounded gutted. Hopefully good.

"Do you like it? I um—"

Before he could say anything else, Tony wrapped an arm around him and pulled him into his chest, kissing the top of his head roughly. "I love it. I can't even tell you how much I love it. But kid, you didn't have to do this."

Peter pulled back a little so he could look up at him, and he could see his dad was tearing up. "I know. I wanted to."

"It's… I…" Tony shook his head when he couldn't figure out what to say.

"Wow. I don't know if I've ever seen you speechless before." Peter teased, nerves receding because he'd obviously done a good job with the present. He hadn't overstepped.

Tony looked back down at the papers in his hands and read the name printed there. "Peter Parker Stark. It has a nice ring to it."

"That's what Pepper said."

"Pepper helped you?"

"Yeah she was great. She actually had to sneak some of the pages in for you to sign when she gave you some other SI paperwork. Good thing you never read anything, right? Um, I hope that was ok…"

"It's more than ok." Tony smiled at him, eyes crinkling at the corners, still shining with unshed tears.

"Good because you are seriously hard to buy for."

Tony laughed.

"Now I really am your son." He teased.

Tony wrapped him back up in a hug. "You were already my son, with or without my name."

"Yeah I know." And he did. "But it's still kind of nice, isn't it?"

"Very." Tony kissed his hair again. "I love you kid."

"I love you too."

"Best Christmas present ever."

"Good." Peter smiled and closed his eyes as he relaxed into Tony's side.

Tony gave him another loving squeeze with the arm he had draped across his shoulders. "Merry Christmas kid."

"Merry Christmas Dad."

* * *

A/N: Thanks so much for all the lovely comments! I hope you enjoyed some more fluff with this chapter - a chapter about my favorite holiday (Xmas) during the week of my second favorite holiday (Halloween). Everyone keep staying safe out there!


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